Friday, September 9, 2016

News 9 education series finds 'joyful' learning in Finland - NonDoc

There are a lot of reasons why News 9’s special report, Educate Oklahoma, is bound to be honored with national journalism awards.

The biggest reason is found at the beginning of its second hour, as the news team investigates humane, holistic, science-based paths to school improvement.

In Finland, ‘learning … is a joyful thing’

Reporter Justin Dougherty and State School Board member Bill Price visit world-class schools in Finland. They and the viewers are told “people want to do good.” The reason Finland probably has the best schools in the world is that their system is founded on the truth: “Learning … is a joyful thing.” Even better, viewers are reminded that the key to education improvement is trust.

Conversely, Finnish teachers who visit America are shocked by the way we treat educators, as well as our ubiquitous phrase, “just a teacher.” The professional autonomy of our teachers has been sacrificed on the altar of increased “output.” To force schools to focus on measurable content and deemphasize far more important tasks, the building of academic and social skills has been undercut. Finnish teachers, however, know that their job is to help their students become better human beings.

Board of Education member Price is an open-minded conservative who has been supportive of reformers, and he did not seem to be taken aback by the Finnish non-punitive team effort to support high-quality instruction. He noted that their high-dollar effort to develop well-trained and supported teachers means that they can focus less on accountability. Like the local business leaders whom I News 9 education series finds 'joyful' learning in Finland - NonDoc: